Don Henley once famously stated that the Eagles' "Heart of the Matter" took him 42 years to write. That song, a bittersweet ode to what comes after love fades away, shares themes with a few songs from Bluffton's Trevor Harden.

The difference is, it didn't take Harden 42 years to pen "It's OK," his anthem to life after a breakup.

It took him just one week.

And it's the 14th song in a row he's written on that schedule as part of his songwriting project "One Love, One Year." That's 14 songs down and 38 to go - a song for every week of the year. It's a project that is, to say the least, ambitious.

One Love, One Year features songs that both tell stories of individuals, from a portrait of a broken man in "Amphetamine" to an ode to a free-wheeling woman in "Wild Abandon," and venerate the human condition, from the terror of intimacy revealed in "Behind the Scenes" to the good old fashioned boy-needs-girl story of "I Want Love." It's a mix of songs that wanders through heavy emotional territory, but is kept out of gloomier terrain by the optimism of its writer. You can hear the ache and longing in each note of a song like "Walk Away," but you're still bobbing your head.

It's no surprise so much emotion and honesty comes through in "One Love, One Year," since the project has its genesis in a pretty painful situation for anyone.

"I was going through a divorce and wondering to myself 'what I'm going to do now,'" Harden, 31, explained from the cramped but cozy recording studio in his Westbury Park home. "I just thought now's the time to do something else."

That quest became this marathon year-long songwriting project. And since inspiration for each song must come by deadline time, Harden doesn't exclude any sources. Some songs were inspired by his own life and his own feelings, like the song dedicated to his 5-year-old daughter Kalli, "I See You sitting There," but a lot of them came from Harden's thoughts on the human condition.

"I don't think that any of it is completely divorced from my situation, you know you always have to color it with your own experiences," he said. "I look for certain themes and try and flesh it out.

"Last week's (the song "It's OK") was kind of a bitterness theme. That's not how I'm feeling right now, but I thought, 'if I was in that place how would I do that?' The reason I liked how that one turned out was because I didn't totally go there... You could easily write a revenge song, and there's plenty of them, but I thought what if it's just under the surface bubbling. It's the same way someone writes a novel. You just kind of assume some characters and see what that person would see from their perspective."

Harden's insight into the human condition is not the only impressive thing about the songs on this project. For example, there's the fact that every instrument on every song - guitar, drums, keyboard, vocals - came from him, originating in his guest room turned recording studio.

"Right now I've done 100 percent of it," he said. "All of it happens right here."

The music comes naturally to this Indiana native, who first learned the piano in the fourth grade and drums in the fifth grade.

"I got into the concert band and was in that scene throughout high school leading the snare drum," he said of his musical past. "When I was 16, I thought: 'you know, guitar is kind of cool. Definitely not as heavy as a drum kit.'"

What began as noodling on the guitar became an expertise for Harden, and when college rolled around he was studying classical guitar at Ball State.

That lifetime of musical experience has propelled Harden through the hectic songwriting schedule of "One Love, One Year." His self-imposed deadline for each song is Sunday night at 9 p.m.

"I haven't had to push that back yet, but I'm working full time, so, you never know," Harden admitted. "Being a dad and working and doing this also, it's a lot."

Harden spends his days as a graphic designer in Beaufort, and spends half of his evenings with his daughter. What time is left goes to the "One Love, One Year" project.

With 14 songs down and 38 to go in this one year, what comes next?

"Long-term, I'm not 100 percent sure where this is going," he said. "I suspect I'm going to look back over those 52, find the best 10-12 and go into the studio and record them. Somewhere along the line, maybe as soon as spring or summer, I'm going to pull some guys together and do some local/regional shows."

The songs so far

Most of the songs released so far have contained some note from Harden on the philosophy behind each work.

Witness - "We all want to be seen. A woman, especially, wants to be noticed, known, understood. This is ultimately the purpose of a relationship: to co-create life; to partake in life's depth of experiences with another."

Alone - "What I find most interesting about 'Alone' is not the way in which the character 'uses' love, but that he's self-aware enough to be doing so consciously."

Behind the Scenes - "Intimacy is nakedness. Letting someone in to see our true, unpolished selves takes trust and transparency. It's a beautiful thing indeed when in that vulnerability we find ourselves accepted, flaws and all."

Walk Away - "Emotions are important; vital even. But they are a rather poor compass. There has to be a deeper truth that guides us."

I Want Love - "'The natural man has only two primal passions, to get and beget.' - William Osler"

The Attic - "One of the easiest traps to fall into in life is that slow disintegration into drifting. You know what I mean: it's that place of cruise-control, of reacting instead of acting, of going through the motions. Unless we consciously intend to live and love 'on purpose,' gravity tends to pulls us into that old sinkhole time and again."

Home to you - "The last few songs have been pretty thematically heavy, so this week I wanted to do something a little more light-hearted. Enjoy..."

Wild Abandon - "This song tells the story of a woman who lives and loves to the fullest... refusing to play it safe... no holding back. I think we all want to be a little more like that."

Honey and Wine - "Physical love runs the gamut from wild, animalistic acts of passion to that which is sensual and - dare I say it? - even spiritual. This song speaks to the latter."

I See you Sitting There - "One Saturday afternoon I was watching my 5-year-old daughter playing and realized I had never written a song for her. I grabbed my guitar and a pen and 'I See You Sitting There' was written right there on the spot."

All of It - "The thing is - once you get past the initial stages of dating, no one is all bubbles and unicorns all the time - even the most beautiful woman on the planet. Once lusty attraction turns into a committed relationship, some of the more... hidden... sides of our character start to rear their heads."

Amphetamine - "The character in this song seems to have climatized to a life of loss. Like any of us, of course he doesn't desire brokenness but his attitudes and beliefs attract it time and again. And time and again, instead of dealing with these things head on, he tends to default to two coping mechanisms: self-medication and running away."

Dive In - "'Natural forces flow between two poles. The north and south poles of the earth create a force of magnetism. The positive and negative poles of your electrical outlet or car battery create an electrical flow.' - David Deida"

It's OK - "...I really had fun this week climbing into this character's shoes and stirring up some longing mixed with gritty vindictiveness. And for some reason with this theme I felt the need to set it to a 60s R&B style - complete with flute and strings. Waiter, I'll have a plate of Unrequited Love with a side of Bitterness. ;-)"